30 Nov Can a bathroom vent into the attic?
Can a bathroom vent into the attic?
Modern bathrooms can come in all shapes and sizes and with lots of fancy extras. That luxury power shower that you wanted gives a great start to your day. But have you given a thought to all of the steam that it will generate? One thing that needs to be considered is the waste air from the bathroom. This is typically moist and can be warm. The perfect combination for mould growth. Because of this you need to ensure that whatever you do to vent your bathroom is properly thought through.
Some people think that they can simply vent their bathroom into the attic after all out of sight out of mind right? Who goes up there much anyway. Wrong! You should not vent air from your bathroom into the attic. Introducing moist air to the attic space is asking for trouble. It can cause a lot of problems with mould and mildew growing on your rafters and even getting in to your insulation. The scariest thing about this is it will be doing silent damage to your home. Your roof structure could end up compromised.
So what are the options for venting the waste air from your bathroom?
What you need to do essentially comes down to venting the pipe that comes from the bathroom outside. This can be done by using one of these types of vents:
Soffit Vent
One option is to route the extracted air over to a soffit vent and attach it to the back of the soffit vent. However this can work against your exhaust fan because that’s actually an air intake, so not as good as other methods.
Gable Vent
The next option would be a Gable vent that is fitted on the outer wall at one end of the house. It is usually better than a soffit vent. A downside is that it can mean a long run of ventilation pipe from the bathroom to the end gable. This means that you might need a bigger or more powerful extractor fan to get the waste air away.
Roof Tile Vent
The preferred solution would be a Roof Tile vent. Ideally this could be position close to where the bathroom is located. This is the best option for getting the moist air out of your house. It means it is going straight up through the roof and out a roof cap on it. Even better, instead of using this flexible type pipe, use a smooth metal pipe to route it through the roof.
